The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

XXVIII.

“Ol-ol — howjer spell it, anyhow?” asked the tart young lady to whom Archer had pushed his wife’s
telegram across the brass ledge of the Western Union office.

“Olenska — O-len-ska,” he repeated, drawing back the message in order to print out the foreign syllables above May’s
rambling script.

“It’s an unlikely name for a New York telegraph office; at least in this quarter,” an unexpected voice observed; and
turning around Archer saw Lawrence Lefferts at his elbow, pulling an imperturbable moustache and affecting not to
glance at the message.

“Hallo, Newland: thought I’d catch you here. I’ve just heard of old Mrs. Mingott’s stroke; and as I was on my way to
the house I saw you turning down this street and nipped after you. I suppose you’ve come from there?”

Archer nodded, and pushed his telegram under the lattice.

“Very bad, eh?” Lefferts continued. “Wiring to the family, I suppose. I gather it IS bad, if you’re including
Countess Olenska.”

Archer’s lips stiffened; he felt a savage impulse to dash his fist into the long vain handsome face at his side.

“Why?” he questioned.

Lefferts, who was known to shrink from discussion, raised his eye-brows with an ironic grimace that warned the other
of the watching damsel behind the lattice. Nothing could be worse “form” the look reminded Archer, than any display of
temper in a public place.

Archer had never been more indifferent to the requirements of form; but his impulse to do Lawrence Lefferts a
physical injury was only momentary. The idea of bandying Ellen Olenska’s name with him at such a time, and on
whatsoever provocation, was unthinkable. He paid for his telegram, and the two young men went out together into the
street. There Archer, having regained his self-control, went on: “Mrs. Mingott is much better: the doctor feels no
anxiety whatever”; and Lefferts, with profuse expressions of relief, asked him if he had heard that there were beastly
bad rumours again about Beaufort. . . .

That afternoon the announcement of the Beaufort failure was in all the papers. It overshadowed the report of Mrs.
Manson Mingott’s stroke, and only the few who had heard of the mysterious connection between the two events thought of
ascribing old Catherine’s illness to anything but the accumulation of flesh and years.

The whole of New York was darkened by the tale of Beaufort’s dishonour. There had never, as Mr. Letterblair said,
been a worse case in his memory, nor, for that matter, in the memory of the far-off Letterblair who had given his name
to the firm. The bank had continued to take in money for a whole day after its failure was inevitable; and as many of
its clients belonged to one or another of the ruling clans, Beaufort’s duplicity seemed doubly cynical. If Mrs.
Beaufort had not taken the tone that such misfortunes (the word was her own) were “the test of friendship,” compassion
for her might have tempered the general indignation against her husband. As it was — and especially after the object of
her nocturnal visit to Mrs. Manson Mingott had become known — her cynicism was held to exceed his; and she had not the
excuse — nor her detractors the satisfaction — of pleading that she was “a foreigner.” It was some comfort (to those
whose securities were not in jeopardy) to be able to remind themselves that Beaufort WAS; but, after all, if a Dallas
of South Carolina took his view of the case, and glibly talked of his soon being “on his feet again,” the argument lost
its edge, and there was nothing to do but to accept this awful evidence of the indissolubility of marriage. Society
must manage to get on without the Beauforts, and there was an end of it — except indeed for such hapless victims of the
disaster as Medora Manson, the poor old Miss Lannings, and certain other misguided ladies of good family who, if only
they had listened to Mr. Henry van der Luyden . . .

“The best thing the Beauforts can do,” said Mrs. Archer, summing it up as if she were pronouncing a diagnosis and
prescribing a course of treatment, “is to go and live at Regina’s little place in North Carolina. Beaufort has always
kept a racing stable, and he had better breed trotting horses. I should say he had all the qualities of a successful
horsedealer.” Every one agreed with her, but no one condescended to enquire what the Beauforts really meant to do.

The next day Mrs. Manson Mingott was much better: she recovered her voice sufficiently to give orders that no one
should mention the Beauforts to her again, and asked — when Dr. Bencomb appeared — what in the world her family meant
by making such a fuss about her health.

“If people of my age WILL eat chicken-salad in the evening what are they to expect?” she enquired; and, the doctor
having opportunely modified her dietary, the stroke was transformed into an attack of indigestion. But in spite of her
firm tone old Catherine did not wholly recover her former attitude toward life. The growing remoteness of old age,
though it had not diminished her curiosity about her neighbours, had blunted her never very lively compassion for their
troubles; and she seemed to have no difficulty in putting the Beaufort disaster out of her mind. But for the first time
she became absorbed in her own symptoms, and began to take a sentimental interest in certain members of her family to
whom she had hitherto been contemptuously indifferent.

Mr. Welland, in particular, had the privilege of attracting her notice. Of her sons-in-law he was the one she had
most consistently ignored; and all his wife’s efforts to represent him as a man of forceful character and marked
intellectual ability (if he had only “chosen”) had been met with a derisive chuckle. But his eminence as a
valetudinarian now made him an object of engrossing interest, and Mrs. Mingott issued an imperial summons to him to
come and compare diets as soon as his temperature permitted; for old Catherine was now the first to recognise that one
could not be too careful about temperatures.

Twenty-four hours after Madame Olenska’s summons a telegram announced that she would arrive from Washington on the
evening of the following day. At the Wellands’, where the Newland Archers chanced to be lunching, the question as to
who should meet her at Jersey City was immediately raised; and the material difficulties amid which the Welland
household struggled as if it had been a frontier outpost, lent animation to the debate. It was agreed that Mrs. Welland
could not possibly go to Jersey City because she was to accompany her husband to old Catherine’s that afternoon, and
the brougham could not be spared, since, if Mr. Welland were “upset” by seeing his mother-in-law for the first time
after her attack, he might have to be taken home at a moment’s notice. The Welland sons would of course be “down town,”
Mr. Lovell Mingott would be just hurrying back from his shooting, and the Mingott carriage engaged in meeting him; and
one could not ask May, at the close of a winter afternoon, to go alone across the ferry to Jersey City, even in her own
carriage. Nevertheless, it might appear inhospitable — and contrary to old Catherine’s express wishes — if Madame
Olenska were allowed to arrive without any of the family being at the station to receive her. It was just like Ellen,
Mrs. Welland’s tired voice implied, to place the family in such a dilemma. “It’s always one thing after another,” the
poor lady grieved, in one of her rare revolts against fate; “the only thing that makes me think Mamma must be less well
than Dr. Bencomb will admit is this morbid desire to have Ellen come at once, however inconvenient it is to meet
her.”

The words had been thoughtless, as the utterances of impatience often are; and Mr. Welland was upon them with a
pounce.

“Augusta,” he said, turning pale and laying down his fork, “have you any other reason for thinking that Bencomb is
less to be relied on than he was? Have you noticed that he has been less conscientious than usual in following up my
case or your mother’s?”

It was Mrs. Welland’s turn to grow pale as the endless consequences of her blunder unrolled themselves before her;
but she managed to laugh, and take a second helping of scalloped oysters, before she said, struggling back into her old
armour of cheerfulness: “My dear, how could you imagine such a thing? I only meant that, after the decided stand Mamma
took about its being Ellen’s duty to go back to her husband, it seems strange that she should be seized with this
sudden whim to see her, when there are half a dozen other grandchildren that she might have asked for. But we must
never forget that Mamma, in spite of her wonderful vitality, is a very old woman.”

Mr. Welland’s brow remained clouded, and it was evident that his perturbed imagination had fastened at once on this
last remark. “Yes: your mother’s a very old woman; and for all we know Bencomb may not be as successful with very old
people. As you say, my dear, it’s always one thing after another; and in another ten or fifteen years I suppose I shall
have the pleasing duty of looking about for a new doctor. It’s always better to make such a change before it’s
absolutely necessary.” And having arrived at this Spartan decision Mr. Welland firmly took up his fork.

“But all the while,” Mrs. Welland began again, as she rose from the luncheon-table, and led the way into the
wilderness of purple satin and malachite known as the back drawing-room, “I don’t see how Ellen’s to be got here
tomorrow evening; and I do like to have things settled for at least twenty-four hours ahead.”

Archer turned from the fascinated contemplation of a small painting representing two Cardinals carousing, in an
octagonal ebony frame set with medallions of onyx.

“Shall I fetch her?” he proposed. “I can easily get away from the office in time to meet the brougham at the ferry,
if May will send it there.” His heart was beating excitedly as he spoke.

Mrs. Welland heaved a sigh of gratitude, and May, who had moved away to the window, turned to shed on him a beam of
approval. “So you see, Mamma, everything WILL be settled twenty-four hours in advance,” she said, stooping over to kiss
her mother’s troubled forehead.

May’s brougham awaited her at the door, and she was to drive Archer to Union Square, where he could pick up a
Broadway car to carry him to the office. As she settled herself in her corner she said: “I didn’t want to worry Mamma
by raising fresh obstacles; but how can you meet Ellen tomorrow, and bring her back to New York, when you’re going to
Washington?”

“Oh, I’m not going,” Archer answered.

“Not going? Why, what’s happened?” Her voice was as clear as a bell, and full of wifely solicitude.

“The case is off — postponed.”

“Postponed? How odd! I saw a note this morning from Mr. Letterblair to Mamma saying that he was going to Washington
tomorrow for the big patent case that he was to argue before the Supreme Court. You said it was a patent case, didn’t
you?”

“Then it’s NOT postponed?” she continued, with an insistence so unlike her that he felt the blood rising to his
face, as if he were blushing for her unwonted lapse from all the traditional delicacies.

“No: but my going is,” he answered, cursing the unnecessary explanations that he had given when he had announced his
intention of going to Washington, and wondering where he had read that clever liars give details, but that the
cleverest do not. It did not hurt him half as much to tell May an untruth as to see her trying to pretend that she had
not detected him.

“I’m not going till later on: luckily for the convenience of your family,” he continued, taking base refuge in
sarcasm. As he spoke he felt that she was looking at him, and he turned his eyes to hers in order not to appear to be
avoiding them. Their glances met for a second, and perhaps let them into each other’s meanings more deeply than either
cared to go.

“Yes; it IS awfully convenient,” May brightly agreed, “that you should be able to meet Ellen after all; you saw how
much Mamma appreciated your offering to do it.”

“Oh, I’m delighted to do it.” The carriage stopped, and as he jumped out she leaned to him and laid her hand on his.
“Good-bye, dearest,” she said, her eyes so blue that he wondered afterward if they had shone on him through tears.

He turned away and hurried across Union Square, repeating to himself, in a sort of inward chant: “It’s all of two
hours from Jersey City to old Catherine’s. It’s all of two hours — and it may be more.”